Cruising has a special
niche in gay history as the queer equivalent of Birth of a Nation — a film in
which an artist outside a subculture creates what appears to be a disturbingly
negative, ill-informed portrait of that subculture. Since D. W. Griffith has
been dead for almost 50 years, we have no way of knowing how he might react to
the controversy that still surrounds Birth of a Nation. Friedkin, on the other
hand, was violently attacked (verbally) by the gay press for supposedly equating homosex with murder, to the extent that Cruising was re-edited into
near-incomprehensibility and prefaced by a groveling statement that "The film is
not intended as an indictment of the homosexual world. It is set in one small
segment of that world which is not meant to be representative of the whole."

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The
Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Audio

English (Dolby Digital 5.1), DUB: Spanish (Dolby Digital 1.0)

Subtitles

English,
Spanish, French , None

Features

Release Information:Studio: Warner Home Video

Aspect Ratio:Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1

Edition Details:

• Commentary
by director William Friedkin• Featurette: The History
of Cruising• Featurette:
Exorcising Cruising• Theatrical trailer

DVD Release Date: September 18th, 2007Keep Case
Chapters: 25

Comments:

In regards to the image - I don't know that I can add much more than simply
viewing the screen captures below.
Black levels are pitch (almost approaching edge enhancement - but if
existing at all it is very minor) and the progressive, dual-layered and
anamorphic image has decent detail. In fact I suspect the film looked
almost exactly as it appears on this DVD - a shade gritty and darkish.
Once we venture beyond the caverns of darkness that frequently
atmosphere the film, colors seem quite true and unmanipulated. I'm
unsure but it would seem highly unlikely that the 5.1 audio is original
but even as a bump it sounded buoyant and quite strong for dialogue etc.
- there is a Spanish mono DUB offered. There are optional English,
French or Spanish subtitles supporting the audio.

Supplements include a very good commentary by director Friedkin. He
doesn't over-do the narration (although he does a fair bit) and brings
up extensive details probably unknown to many excepting the producers of
the film. He talks about the actual historical events behind the plot.
He is good to listen to, his memory is sharp, and he has a kind of
controlled enthusiasm in his voice. I enjoyed it very much. There
are also two 20 minute featurettes on the 'Making of...' probably
divided into individual parts to avoid the legalities of payment of the
participants - dependant on the running length of the piece. Input is
included from many associated with the production - certainly far better
than the usual fluff we tend to get.

Overall, I have wanted to re-watch
this film for about 20 years and assumed there was some reason
beyond my
knowledge as to why it remained so clandestine. Although some claim it
has exploitive elements, which are actually far more tame nowadays,
Cruising has some intensely suspense moments and I again found it
very enjoyable with strong performances - super value for the price.